Impact of research computing on the Indiana economy and IU budget
Indiana University and research computing have impacts on the Indiana economy in several ways.
Staff
of the Research and Academic Computing Division of UITS, in collaboration
with faculty of the School
of Informatics
and faculty and
staff of the Department of Chemistry, have recently commercialized a
3-D visualization device called a John-E-Box
.
Thanks to the licensing efforts of ARTI, John-E-Boxes are
now part of the product offerings of CAE-Net,
a central Indiana engineering and technology company.
The
Research and Academic Computing Division has disclosed a total of seven
new software innovations to ARTI
(the
Advanced Research and Technology Institute, the organization responsible
for commercializing IU's innovations). Several of these are open source
products and available for transformation into commercial products.
Staff of the Research and Academic Computing Division are currently
involved in discussions regarding commercialization of three software
products.
Research computing has a significant impact on the IU budget. The Research and Academic Computing Division has participated in securing many grants of computing hardware for Indiana University . These grants now total to an equivalent of more than five million dollars ($5M) in value of computing equipment (at retail prices). The Research and Academic Computing Division engages in licensing activities that allow IU to achieve a cost avoidance of more than three million dollars ($3M) per year. That is, the difference between the actual cost of software distributed to the University, and what it would cost at academic list prices, is more than $3M. These activities leverage and extend the capabilities of IU's information technology budget significantly.
Research
activities also benefit the Indiana
economy indirectly.
The American Association of Universities
estimates
each year the number of jobs created in Indiana
as direct and indirect
effects of grant monies obtained by Indiana
University. For FY 2000/2001
the AAU estimated that 41.4 jobs were created in the State of Indiana
for each million
dollars of grant money brought into the State. (This figure represents
a mix of full-time and part-time jobs). For FY 2001/2002 the AAU estimated
that 36.3 jobs jobs were created in the State of Indiana
for each million
dollars of grant money. Details behind these figures are available for
FY 2000/2001 and for FY
2001/2002.
The
Public Sector plays a leading role in attracting top talent to the State
of Indiana .
The American Electronics Association report " CyberStates
2002 " describes
the high-tech economy of Indiana
. The average annual
wage for a high-tech job in Indiana
is $46,252. The
average private sector high-tech job has an annual wage of $31,019.
What this means is that public sector jobs — including and especially
University jobs — are paying more than the average wage for the state,
and thus Universities are among the magnets that draw into and keep
skilled technical workers and information experts in Indiana.
